Imagine my delight when we finally got the City Boy, our new Mini Stock Mustang, back to the shop and up on the lift. Here I was, thinking in a couple of days we would be down to the bare metal, welding in a cage, and heading out to the track. I mean, how hard can prepping a Mini Stock Mustang be? Unfortunately, my reckless optimism got the best of me once again and, as it turns out, putting a quality race car together is neither easy nor fast. Since the real brains behind this operation, Pete Epple and Editor Rob Fisher, like to cover every base before moving forward, we had two days' worth of inspection prior to making any real moves. In this particular build, that meant tearing our stock Mustang down to the core and really figuring out what could stay, what had to go, and what was ruined beyond repair. Luckily, we had a lot of the former and none of the latter, which meant luck was on our side during the pickup and purchase of our Mini Stock-to-be.

2/21

Trust me, I know this stuff might seem a bit boring at first, but I can't tell you how many racers we've seen waste weeks or months chasing issues that should have been solved from the start.

There's no point installing a high-horsepower cheater motor or a set of tricked out shocks if your chassis is twisted like a pretzel or your suspension pickup points are all out of line. That would be the equivalent of building a chassis without measuring it or without knowing where your moment center is (blatant nod to CT chassis guru Bob Bolles). You know what we're talking about here and no one wants to be that guy. "Hey, Joe, did you ever notice your car sits crooked and dog legs around the track?" That's not the conversation you want to have after spending six months in your garage, slaving away night after night to finish your project, and it's one you can avoid with a couple of hours, a keen eye, and a string. Yes, stringing your car is important and something you can learn how to do by searching the topic on www.circletrack.com.

3/21Pete Epple and Editor Fisher wasted no time tearing into our project to find out what could stay and what had to go. Armed with a rule book, general mechanical knowledge, and a good understanding of our final goals, the first priority was to make sure we had a solid foundation on our hands. The last thing anyone wants is to put together an entire car only to find a serious issue the first time you hit the track.

Whether you're a first time racer, like I am, or a seasoned veteran of the oval track, we've collected some of the most common problem areas on any initial build and highlighted them on the following pages. As always, we invite you to follow along and send us your feedback!